


Round and Sharp

by thesecretdetectivecollection



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Captain-Vice Captain Relationships, Friendship, Gen, Stevie being Jordan's Yoda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 11:38:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9321872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesecretdetectivecollection/pseuds/thesecretdetectivecollection
Summary: In Jordan's experience, there are two ways captain-vice captain relationships can go, at least here in Liverpool. There’s the Stevie-Carra way, and the Stevie-anyone else way.So he's understandably nervous when James Milner comes in from City and is immediately made his new vice captain.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For Anna, who deserves the world

Jordan takes the captaincy after Stevie leaves. He knows it’s coming, he’s had the time to study and ask questions and get advice and look inside himself and see whether he likes the person he sees in the mirror.

He’s worked hard for this, studied everything Stevie did and said and didn’t do and didn’t say. He’s had coffee with Stevie, asked him questions and gotten answers, and asked him questions and gotten non-answers, (those helped too, in their own way). He’s had Stevie offer bits of advice— _jog with one of the younger members of the squad, out in front—they’re eager, you’re the leader_.

_Don’t pick a favorite, it never ends well—rotate your stretching partners, stay connected with all the groups that form inside the squad._

After Stevie’s last game, he comes up to Jordan, holding the armband in his hands, gently, like he doesn’t want to hurt it. He puts it on Jordan’s arm. _This is yours now_ , he says. _I’ll give you one last piece of advice, and then I’m done. You ask me for help if you need it, but you’ve got it all inside you, Jordan._

_Here’s my last piece of advice. Find someone who can take care of you when you forget. Someone you respect. Someone who balances you out. Someone you’ll actually listen to._

_Like you and Carra?_

_Yeah. Like me and Carra. But you’re not me, and so you don’t need Carra. Find someone who’s round in the places you’re sharp, Jordan. Someone who is smart when you are impulsive and brave when you are afraid. And when this—_ he touches the armband gently _—gets too heavy for you, let him take it off your hands until you’re strong enough to carry it again._

Stevie pulls him in close and kisses his forehead like a priest giving a blessing and Jordan smiles at him, but his eyes are wetter than he’d like them to be.

And then James Milner arrives.

He’s swamped almost immediately by the younger players—they wanna know about _everything_.

_Was it hard leaving Manchester City?_

_Who was your best friend there?_

_Who cares? Who’s your best friend here? It’s me, right? Right?_

_What was it like playing for England the first time?_

_Which was your favorite of the clubs you’ve been at?_

_You’re not allowed to ask that, you muppet! Of course he’s going to say here! That’s what you’re supposed to say!_

_What do you remember from winning the league? And Champions League? Were the parties really as wild as people say they were?_

Jordan… gives him his space. He doesn’t want to bother him, he decides. James has enough going on. He just wants to welcome him to the club, which he does with a firm handshake and a warm, polite smile, and get to business. He just wants things to settle down and for the team to start gelling so they can win their trophies instead of just asking James what it was like.

Jordan’s won trophies too, you know.

(Okay, fine, the Carling Cup isn’t the same as a Premier League title, and it’s not the same as Champions League win, either. But it’s something, and it’s something he’s proud of. His first trophy with the club. His only trophy with the club, he thinks to himself soberly before shutting down that train of thought efficiently.)

Some people want Milner to come in and take the armband, straightaway. Gerrard to Milner, it makes sense, they say. Older, experienced midfielders, relatively scandal-free, levelheaded leaders on and off the pitch… Trophy-winners for club, if not country.

Jordan doesn’t want that to happen. Stevie wanted him to have the armband, so he’ll have the armband. He can do this, if he just gets the chance to do it.

The boys at the national team, well, Joe Hart, mostly, called James Milly. Ads picked it up and brought it to Liverpool, until even Jordan thinks of the man as Milly.

He’s kind of a boring lad. Not as boring as the twitter account, obviously, but he’s the sort of lad that gets in, does his work, and goes home. He’s the sort of lad who’ll go to post-match drinks, but he’ll hold a club soda in his hand with a splash of cranberry juice and keep an eye on the young guns eying up the expensive vodka and top-shelf scotch. Jordan doesn’t _not_ like that sort of guy, he’s just… easy to know.

Or so Jordan assumes, when he comes into practice and finds Studge and Clyney and even Ads ( _et tu, Ads?_ ) laughing their heads off, and Milly with a telltale subtle smile that gives him away. Studgey is nearly crying, clutching at his stomach.

Ads tells Jordan the joke afterwards. He does his best, but he doesn’t deliver it all that well, to be honest. Jordan can see how it should have sounded though, and he mentally realigns his characterization of Milly to include wicked, _filthy_ sense of humor.

It’s a couple of months in that Milly’s given the vice-captaincy. Brendan talks to him about it, explains his reasoning, and asks if he has any objections. Jordan can’t think of any, really, none other than _I wish it could have been Ads instead, because I love him and he’s my best friend._

In his experience, there are two ways captain-vice captain relationships can go, at least here in Liverpool. There’s the Stevie-Carra way, and the Stevie-anyone else way.

Stevie and Carra are so close rumor had it they’re telepathically linked. Vicious banter, a lifetime of memories almost as old as Raheem Sterling, the comfort of familiarity, the hidden tenderness that only comes out when they need it from each other. Jordan might have thought Stevie more than human, but for the last year, but Carra could never think that about Stevie. They understand each other too well. A decade and a half of living out of each other’s pockets will do that.

And things change after Carra leaves. Retires, not leaves, Jordan thinks to himself, because there’s no way Carra would ever leave Stevie if he could help it. But Stevie gets older, faster. He gets along well with Daniel, they’ve had years and years together, even if Daniel isn’t quite Jamie. But Daniel leaves too, after just one more year, and then Jordan is Stevie’s new vice-captain.

And that had just been kind of sad. Stevie and Carra had always split things evenly, picked each other up, and Jordan tries that, does his absolute best, but he’s too young, and he doesn’t know Stevie well enough, and Stevie’s  too proud to ask for the help he needs, (which is why Carra’s so brilliant to begin with). The end result of that is that Stevie ends up taking more onto his own shoulders, and he grows older even _faster._ He looks sad a lot more, and spends a lot of time looking at Emre Can’s back.

Jordan hopes he and Milly will be a Stevie-Carra type of partnership, even if he isn’t particularly confident.

He’s walking into the cafeteria a few days later, when Milly’s reprimanding Ads for eating crisps. He’s gentle, so Jordan doesn’t need to intervene, doesn’t need to summon his white horse so he can go save his best friend.

“You keep eating like that, and this part of you will get all soft and squishy,” Milly teases, poking at Adam’s stomach.

“I think you’ll find my muscles are rock-hard, Milly,” Adam says back.

Milly raises one eyebrow, waits for Adam to get the implication. “Rock hard, you say?” He asks lightly, looking at Adam’s shorts. “Hardly impressive, if that’s rock hard. That’s okay, lad, it’s how you use it that matters. So I’ve heard, anyway.”

It’s not mean-spirited, just banter, just a little ‘ _look at what you opened yourself up for, that opportunity was just too good to to waste’_ sort of joke, and Jordan can’t help it. He bursts into laughter.

Ads looks up at him sheepishly. He smiles at Milly as he walks over and throws an arm around Ads.

  
“Leave ‘im be,” he says mildly, “that’s my best mate you’re talking to, Mills.” He smiles at him, “and good teammates don’t tease about _that_ problem.”

Ads shoves his arm away. “Thanks, mate.”

Milly smiles at him, and it’s the first time he’s had the full force of that smile aimed at him, nothing subtle about it, just a little-boy grin, wide and toothy. It feels good, to make Milly smile. He adjusts his mental characterization of his new vice-captain to include that little nugget of new information.

“Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile for me?” Milly asks him, playing up the disbelief.

“Oh, please, Milly, I know I have the features of a Greek god, but that doesn’t mean my sense of humor is _rock hard_.” It’s an awkward joke, a little clumsy, but it’s a gesture, and judging by the warmth that softens Milly’s eyes, even as he laughs at the joke, Milly gets it. 

_Find someone who’s round in the places you’re sharp, Jordan. Someone who is smart when you are impulsive and brave when you are afraid. And when it_ _gets too heavy for you, let him take the armband off your hands until you’re strong enough to carry it again._

Maybe that’s why it wasn’t Adam. Adam’s sharp in the same places Jordan’s sharp. That’s why they get along so well. That’s why they’re best friends. But Milly? Milly might be exactly what he needs.  

 

He thinks this might end up a Stevie-Carra relationship after all.


End file.
